


the sun strikes like a gong

by shellsinsand



Series: the consequences of light [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen, Post-Kannabi Bridge Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-06 00:15:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15874608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shellsinsand/pseuds/shellsinsand
Summary: Obito, after





	the sun strikes like a gong

**Author's Note:**

> still tragically attached to these idiots. i am not proud.

**i.**  
Obito has this dream and it’s nothing but the sound of iron – metal hitting rock. It’s the sound of the world collapsing and he cannot see anything but darkness. Eventually, he becomes aware that he’s trapped in a space so small he can’t move and he jolts awake hyperventilating. Claustrophobia seems an easy price to pay for growing up. 

**ii.**  
Awakening the Sharingan _hurts_. Reo, the Uchiha healer, laughs at him when he stumbles into his shop, squinting against the light and clutching at his head. It just figures, that Obito's bloodline limit would see fit to punish him. 

“Your body just rerouted a large quantity of chakra through your eyes, baka,” Reo says, but he sits him down and smears a balm over his temples. It smells like lavender.

“We’re _born_ for this,” he whines, but his headache is already melting away. He’s going to marry whatever this paste is. 

“Evolution only does good enough, not perfect,” he says, wry, and hands him a jar. “Take it slow with training and make sure you keep this out of your hair – it doesn’t wash out easily.” 

**iii.**  
Obito’s never been close with the group of cousins closest to his age. They’re mostly from the snobby portion of the clan and he’s always been too loud, too emotional, too _mediocre_ to warrant anything but their derision. _This is what happens_ , they’d whisper, _when a good woman marries beneath her_. Now, he’s one quarter of the squad that annihilated the Iwa supply lines and they nod stiffly at him in the market. Obito does his best to stifle his laughter. 

**iv.**  
Team Minato is grounded for “recuperation” after the bridge, which Obito thinks is just a nice way of saying they’re all beat to hell and the Hokage can’t afford to get his new war heroes killed immediately. Sensei, however, is back in the field after a week. It’s hard to miss him when he keeps sending them heavily coded messages that take them days to work out. They contain, without fail, more and more absurd training drills. 

**v.**  
Kakashi spends an entire two weeks being unfailingly polite. Obito has spent the last three years pretty well convinced Kakashi had been raised by wolves and wasn’t aware of etiquette as a concept, so it’s pretty unsettling. On the sixteenth day, Minato gets back from his latest mission and drags them all out of bed for taijutsu practice. They make it through four rounds before Obito trips over thin air and winds up on his back in the dirt. He groans, but when he looks up Kakashi is just offering him a hand and looking physically pained. Obito is suddenly, incandescently angry and over this politeness bullshit. 

“Kami, we _already know_ you’re kind of a dick,” he says, voice rising. He scrambles up, pushing into Kakashi’s space. The bastard doesn’t get to hide from them after everything they’ve gone through. “You don’t get to push us out _now_. Stop pretending like you don’t care.” Kakashi blinks, and the next thing Obito knows the ground is rushing up to meet him. 

“Your footwork is terrible,” Kakashi says, leaning over him.

“Fuck… you,” Obito wheezes, reaching a hand out. “Show me.” Kakashi does, and it almost looks like he could be smiling. 

**vi.**  
He didn’t die. Sometimes he can’t shake the feeling that he was supposed to. 

**vii.**  
“I’ve been neglecting my combat skills,” Rin says. They’re taking a lunch break, and she stabs at her rice. “I thought advancing my medical knowledge would be more valuable – but it makes me a liability.”

“Rin, that’s not – ” 

“No, it is true.” She sets her bento down and runs her hand through her hair. “I’m going to be a damn good doctor, but that doesn’t make me a good field medic.”

“You need to work on your ranged skills,” Kakashi says, hopping down from his perch on the post before Obito can say anything. “Ninjutsu, probably – although you have the chakra control for genjutsu.” He looks her up and down. “Taijutsu’s not your strong point, and it makes more sense to keep you out of the thick of it. You’re small and you’re fast. Learning to maintain your distance shouldn’t be too hard.” Obito shares a look with Rin, but she shrugs all _he’s not wrong_. Well, in that case. 

“Sensei’s going to be so excited to come up with new drills,” he says, and ducks out of the way of the chopstick Rin throws at his face. 

**viii.**  
Shisui tracks him down when he rotates back from the front, nearly two months after the bridge mission. He’s so much more an Uchiha than Obito will ever be, even now with his Sharingan, but Shisui grins, wide and easy, and in this respect they’re exactly the same. “Hero of Konoha,” he says, sitting down on the dock next to Obito and bumping their shoulders together. “Is it everything you dreamed of?”

Obito thinks of his nightmares, his headaches, and the way he can’t sleep under anything heavier than a sheet. He thinks of Kakashi’s stupid sense of humor and how sharp Rin’s smile gets when she finally gives into her competitive side. His body’s getting stronger every day. There’re so many things about being a ninja you can’t comprehend until you’re living them. 

“It’s different,” he says, dragging his toes in the water. The sun's hot on his neck and he laughs. “It's better.”


End file.
